“She has abandoned all things, even God. She seeks neither mercy nor judgment, neither heaven nor hell. She has no name, no will, no desire. She has left behind the world, the flesh, the spirit. She has passed beyond time, beyond eternity. She is nothing. And in this nothingness, she is free.” — The Mirror of Simple Souls (13th and early 14th century)
Porete’s God is not an external ruler, nor a being to be feared or obeyed. God is an abyss, an infinite nothingness that swallows all things. To reach union with God, the Soul must die to everything, even to God Himself.
She describes a God who is so all-encompassing that, once the Soul is fully annihilated in Him, there is no distinction between God and nothingness. This is why she says:
“The Soul no longer seeks God, for she is lost in Him, and in being lost, she is found. But she does not know herself, nor God, nor anything. For there is only Love, and Love is abyssal.” — The Mirror of Simple Souls
This anonymous Christian mystical text (14th Century) echoes Marguerite Porete’s vision, describing God as an unknowable abyss, where the only way to reach Him is to let go of all knowledge, thought, and desire.
“You must forget yourself, and forget all things. Throw yourself into the cloud of unknowing, for God can only be found in the abyss beyond thought.”
The Cloud of Unknowing is one of the most extreme Christian mystical texts, written anonymously in the 14th century. Unlike traditional theology, which tries to understand God through reason, doctrine, and scripture, this text demands complete surrender into the unknown—a dark, infinite abyss where thought and selfhood are obliterated.
It teaches that God cannot be known or understood—the only way to reach Him is to abandon all knowledge, let go of the self, and enter into absolute nothingness.
"God cannot be grasped by the mind, nor touched by the senses, nor understood by reason. God is not light, nor darkness, nor thought, nor silence. The only way to reach Him is to abandon all things, and to throw yourself into the unknown." — The Cloud of Unknowing